So Confused

I think I am just getting more and more confused about Morocco the longer I spend here. Like, yesterday in my evening English class, one of the boys told me that if a girl were raped her family would not want anyone to find out because it shames the girl and the family. I was like.....uh........sorry, can you explain that to me? A guy commits a crime, violates the girl, breaks the law, and the girl and her family are shamed? Did I miss something? He told me that the shame on the family is because they allowed her to get into a situation where she could be raped and the shame on the girl is because virginity is everything in this culture. All of my students agreed in that situation that the girl's family would approach the guy's family seeking his hand in marriage. WHATTTTTT??!?!?!?!? You WANT your daughter to marry the rapist?!?!!? Yes. Less shameful. Hmmmmmmm. I don't think my opinion can be put in politically correct and blog appropriate terminology so I will just say that I respectfully disagree.

I also learned on Friday and again yesterday that if a woman's husband dies then she must wear all white for 4 months and 10 days so that everyone will know whether or not she is pregnant with a child from her first husband. I guess I can see that, although I think that DNA testing pretty much eliminates any confusion as far as that is concerned. I don't know how I feel about a woman having to advertise her very personal affairs to the entire world for months though. Particularly since it does not work the other way around.

Yes, yesterday was a very educational class. I knew abortion was illegal but was surprised when my students talked about the frequency with which it occurs in private. We also talked about sex before marriage, and I gave them the statistic that 9 out of 10 Americans have sex before they get married. They asked me how I felt about it and I tried to think of a PC way to say I really don't see a huge problem with it, as long as both people consent. I think my wording was something like...."I respect the fact that people make decisions based on cultural norms, and cultural norms in the US are quite different than cultural norms in Morocco." I know, such BS. I felt like I was writing a paper for junior high English or something.

Yesterday, Ceri, Eddy, and Pete all left....which completely sucks because they were really some of the people that I had been the closest to here. I just feel like everyone is leaving before me!! Which makes Rabat totally hard to handle alone. I am so glad that Janice and Phillipa are still here. Amandine just changed her flight to go back next week so I really will be the last one in Morocco, other than the people that have just arrived.

Alright well I really need to go shower because the weather is ridiculously humid. We went out last night just to get out of the house because even at 11 at night the humidity in the home was really awful. We didnt stay out long though because Amandine was not feeling well and it was La Fete du Throne, which basically just means that is was a national holiday celebrating the day that Mohamed VI became king.